The Sole Exception
by Lanta
Summary: An Ascended Elizabeth Weir must stop her people dying... again. An AU of Before I Sleep.


**Author's note **

I was looking for AUs of _Before I Sleep_, and it gave me the idea for this one-shot. The normal disclaimer applies: I don't own the characters, the show, etc.

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Daniel leaned against the wall, tuning out McKay's jabbering and wishing once again that Jack would allow him to go with the others to Atlantis.

With the expedition leaving in just under two weeks, the atmosphere in the room was excited (if slightly apprehensive). Noone knew what they might find in the Pegasus Galaxy, but everyone there wanted to find out.

He forced himself to concentrate as Major Sheppard asked a question.

"So, do we think there might still be some people living there?"

He was about to answer when a female voice replied, "No, it's empty. The Ancients evacuated the city a long time ago."

At first he thought Elizabeth had spoken, and wondered how she could possibly know that - and then he saw the stunned look on her face. He turned, and saw _another_ Elizabeth, standing by the door, watching them with a smile on her face.

"Who are you?" Jack pushed his chair back, standing up and eyeing the duplicate Weir warily.

"Elizabeth Weir."

"No, you're not." The other – the actual? – Elizabeth also rose to her feet.

"Actually, I am. I'm you. Just… a slightly different you. Older."

"You're from the future?" McKay asked sceptically.

"No. More of an alternate reality."

"You expect us to believe you? How did you get here?"

"Daniel knows." She turned to him.

"What? No I don't."

"Yes, you do. When you first met me, you thought you recognised my face – but you didn't know why. You assumed you'd seen a picture of me somewhere. You couldn't remember where."

He looked at her for a moment, and then a faint memory came back to him... of talking with her, but not in a _human_ way…

"You're Ascended."

"Yes."

"But how?"

She pulled out a chair and sat down. Jack looked doubtfully at Daniel, but at the other man's shrug he and the _human_ Elizabeth also resumed their seats at the table.

"I went to Atlantis as planned," began the alternate Weir quietly. "It was incredible. The city is absolutely beautiful, and there were _so_ many things we could have learned from it.

"It was also completely submerged below water. The myth about a city that sunk is real – it just didn't happen on Earth. The Ancients left a shield in place protecting it, but with our arrival we used up more power. The shield began to fail."

"So, what, you chose to Ascend rather than die?" asked Jack.

"No." She looked down for a moment. "We couldn't get back to Earth, so we tried to find another planet in the Pegasus Galaxy to go to. Our first attempt failed, and we didn't have time to try again. When the shield failed, most of our people died. John and I managed to get away in an Ancient spaceship, but he didn't survive the trip."

"So what happened?" asked Daniel, quietly.

"The ship I was in had a time device. It was activated by accident. I was sent back in time, to when the Ancients still lived in the city."

The other Elizabeth seemed to have forgotten her doubts about her alternate self. "I'm sorry you lost everyone, but _meeting_ the Ancients… that must have been incredible."

"I was a little too shocked to appreciate it really, but yes it was. They healed me, and I told them what had happened. They were in the middle of evacuating Atlantis, going back to Earth, and they took me with them."

"And you Ascended when they did," said Daniel, understanding.

"Yes."

"But why are you here now, telling us this?"

"Yeah, don't you guys have some law against interfering in human business?" asked General O'Neill.

"We do. This is… my exception. The one and only time I'm allowed to do things differently. When we formed that law, I told everyone that I would break it, just this once. That I wouldn't allow my team to die again."

"I'm sure that went down well," said Daniel dryly.

"I wasn't the most popular person, no. But eventually the others agreed. I can help you right now, with this, but never again."

"So are you saying we _shouldn't _go to Atlantis?" asked Colonel Sumner.

"Actually, I'm here to make sure you do - and that you survive." She stood, and walked over to a whiteboard that stood at the front of the room. Choosing a thick black pen, she drew the seven symbols that formed a gate address.

"When I was still human, I went to this world, and left a fully-charged ZPM there. It's hidden in a cave, about half an hour north of the gate. Take that to Atlantis, and use it to power the shield."

"You're sure it's still there?" asked Sheppard. "I mean, it's been a few thousand years right?"

"I checked before coming here," she replied with a smile.

"That's brilliant. So we can dial home again from Atlantis as well!" McKay was already running over possibilities in his head.

"Is there anything else you can tell us?" asked the human Weir. "Any help for us in the Pegasus Galaxy?"

"The others won't allow me to tell you much more. I can tell you that raising the city to the surface will save on power, and there's a cloaking device you can use if you're attacked."

"Is that _likely_ to happen?" asked Sumner.

"The Ancients didn't evacuate for no reason," she replied, without giving any forbidden details.

"So they had an enemy."

"I can't tell you anything more. I'm sorry."

"Well thank you for telling us this much," said Sheppard. "It's nice to know I won't die."

She smiled at him, and then glanced around the table, her eyes lingering first on Rodney, and then on each person that she had once lost. "Seeing you all again… it's truly amazing."

"Well you can come visit us, right?" She looked at Sheppard, and he shrugged. "You don't have to actually interfere. You can just chat."

"I think I'd like that." She smiled, and looked again at all the familiar faces, and then glanced down ruefully at the pen still in her hand, putting it down onto the table.

"I'd better go. Maybe… maybe I will stop by. See you occasionally." She smiled, and then her human form was gone, replaced by a white form that glowed briefly before it, too, disappeared.

"Well," said Daniel after a moment's silence. "I suppose we'd better go get the ZPM. Atlantis is waiting."


End file.
